


Experiment

by The_Sickfic_Sideblog



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Galra Keith (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Panic Attacks, Season/Series 02 Spoilers, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-31
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-10-13 10:46:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10512195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Sickfic_Sideblog/pseuds/The_Sickfic_Sideblog
Summary: Alternative Title: Implied-NSFW But-Not-Actually-NSFW Not-So-Accidental Klance featuring Keith “Galra with Anxiety” Kogane and Lance “The Best Boyfriend” McClain.





	

Lance shut off his alarm after only a single beep. He didn't want anyone else to be woken up, or even pulled from their deep sleep. Besides, he was used to being woken up at 2:37 am. It was becoming a very  _ very _ regular thing.

As the Blue Paladin silently pulled himself from his bed, he knew that a few doors down the hall, a similar alarm was going off in Keith's room with the same reaction. The idea excited him. All the sleep fled from his senses as he dug through his bottom drawer until his hands brushed over a small box. Just where he left it a spicolian movement ago.

Keith had been less willing to participate in their late-night activities ever since he came back from the base where he took his knife. Lance tried to get him to at least talk about what happened, but Keith was unusually tight-lipped about it. Lance thought he was stoic before, but this was getting ridiculous.

So when Keith agreed that they should get back into the swing of things, Lance was overjoyed (even though Keith said “get back in the stirrups”, and Lance almost had to break up with him right then and there). He even suggested they mix things up, if for no other reason but to distract him from whatever was looming over him.

_ The best way to make my boyfriend feel better is to try weird new sexy things? I can do that, _ Lance thought. With his pajama pants filled with space condoms and various other objects he thought they could have fun with, he peered out his door to check for other paladins and stepped out into the hallway.

Lance checked his watch as he hovered outside Keith's door, just in time to see it change to 2:40 am. Perfect timing. He knocked once - just once - and opened the door, closing it delicately behind him.

He expected there to be lights blinding his eyes. He expected to see Keith laying down on his bed, eyes slightly sleepy but still excited and hips popped in those little red shorts. Instead, there was complete darkness, not even the faint light of the alarm clock. But this wasn’t a bad thing. Lance heard slight shuffled movement and light panting. This  _ definitely _ wasn’t a bad thing.

“Starting without me?” Lance grinned as he emptied his pockets, “Not fair, Keith. I’m turning on the lights...”

His hand palmed the wall until he found the light switch, then flicked the knob. His smile fell. Keith wasn’t on the bed. His eyes darted around until they landed on something huddled in the back corner of the room, something shaking with bright yellow eyes and purple skin and big ears-

The Blue Paladin didn’t think. He dropped the space condoms, pulled his elbow back, and ran at the Galra, screaming as loud as he could. He was fully prepared to ram his elbow into its nose, even if it broke his arm in the process. The Galra turned, locking eyes with Lance before turning away and bracing itself.

A second before contact, Lance pulled back. His brain started to put the pieces together. This Galra had Keith’s gloves on, and the same little red shorts. But Lance’s suspicions were confirmed - he’d recognize that mullet anywhere.

_ “Keith?!” _

“L-Lance, it’s me...I-I know it’s- I know I’m- but-”

Lance tuned out the rest of the words. Keith tried to stammer out an explanation as he sunk to his knees. Blood was dabbled in the fur across Keith’s neck and caked the undersides of his new claws. The same scratches covered his arms. The same anxious, familiar scratches.

Keith had developed anxiety at some point in the fight against Zarkon. Shiro suspected it could’ve been from fighting Zarkon head-to-head, or his exposure to the quintessence, or simply from being in space and fighting for so long. Whatever the case, the most common symptom was not being able to breathe. Keith would scratch and claw at his throat, trying to get rid of a blockage that wasn’t there. While it never truly hurt him, Lance was beginning to suspect he was getting anxiety as well just from worrying about him.

But now, for whatever reason, Keith had the claws. And the scratches were much deeper.

Lance interrupted Keith’s panicked speech, “What happened?” He took Keith’s hands away, holding them to keep them from his neck, “Keith, breathe for me. You can breathe, I promise you can. There’s enough oxygen in the room.”

The Red Paladin stammered to a stop. True to their usual calming methods, he clenched Lance’s hands tightly, closed his eyes, and tried to breathe. Lance continued to model breathing, but couldn’t pull his eyes away from the way Keith’s new ears twitched and flicked.

Eventually, the shaking stopped, and the tears began to fall. That was the unfortunate sign that the panic attack was over. Without a lick of hesitation, Lance pulled Keith into his arms, holding him the way he always did.

“I’ve got you,  _ Cariño...” _

“Lance...m-my neck...”

Lance gently ran his fingers over the back of Keith’s neck, finding that they came back too bloody for comfort. No large arteries seemed to be severed, but it was still enough blood to kick Lance into action. He scooped up Keith from under the arms and hauled him to his feet, careful to account for the shaky knees after a panic attack. He guided his boyfriend to the bathroom and sat him on top of the closed toilet.

“Lance...” Keith’s voice was only a little above a whisper, and not just to keep the other paladins sleeping, “Lance, I’m sorry...I-I should’ve told you...”

He couldn’t finish his sentence. His lips were being pressed against Lance’s. “It’s okay, Keith. This is going to sting a tiny bit...” Keith felt the heat of a warm washcloth on his neck, stinging his cuts just as Lance said. He winced, bearing his teeth unintentionally.

“But...but it’s  _ not _ okay...? I’m...l-look at me, I’m Galra!”

Lance shook his head as he cleaned off the rest of the blood from Keith’s arms. It wasn’t a perfect job, but he didn’t think he could put band-aids over fur. There were more important matters to attend to. “I don’t care that you’re Galra, I care that you’re not panicking and bleeding.”

This wasn’t exactly what Keith wanted to hear. The tears started to flow faster, “Wh-what do you mean you don’t care?! Don’t...don’t you care?! That I’m fucking  _ purple _ ?! Doesn’t-” his voice faltered and cracked, “....doesn’t this bother you? A-aren’t you going to leave me?”

Lance could almost feel his heart actually shatter. He stopped looking through the bathroom drawers for disinfectant and took Keith’s cheeks in his hands. His fingers cupped the very bottom of his downturned ears. “...is that what gave you a panic attack? You thought I’d leave you?”

Keith nodded ever so slightly. That was the last straw. Lance picked him up behind the knees and shoulders and headed back to the bed. In a few quick motions, both of them were bundled up beneath the covers, Lance wiping away the tears wetting Keith’s fur.

“I do care, but not in the way you think. I care that you’re you. I care that you’re my Keith and that you’re okay,” he pressed their foreheads together and gently petted Keith’s large ears, “These don’t make a difference at all.”

Keith was starting to sound a lot more like himself, “You...don’t mind?”

“Of course not. You’re still  _ mi vida _ . And besides...” Lance pressed their lips together again, this time with a smile and a small nibble on Keith’s bottom lip. He ran his tongue over Keith’s new sharpened canines, “you said you wanted to experiment.”


End file.
